1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to feed for raising swine which grow well and are capable of producing meat of good quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, consumption of livestock meat has been increasing. Among livestock meat, pork is desired to have less smell, maintain its freshness and quality for prolonged periods, generate less drip, and exhibit good moisture retainability.
Hitherto, attempts have been made to add a variety of additives to feed so as to improve the quality, the taste and the smell, etc. of livestock meat. For example, GB Nos. 2119624A and 2118420A, Japanese Patent Application laid-open (kokai) Nos. 63-266, 5-276878 and 7-31382, EP No. 0635217A, and U.S. Pat Nos. 4,665,099 and 4,820,739 discloses a method for improving the quality and the smell of meat by feeding livestock or poultry feed containing spices or refined oil thereof. However, a simple addition of spices or refined oil thereof provides only limited improvement in smell and shelf life. Particularly, reduction in volume of drip and enhancement of moisture retainability are far from satisfactory.
Under the above circumstances, the present inventors conducted careful studies in an attempt to solve the above-described problem, and found that when swine are bred with feed that contains spices and vitamin E as additives, it is possible to obtain pork meat which gives less smell, maintains freshness and quality for prolonged periods, generates less drip, and exhibits good moisture retainability, compared to the case where swine are bred with a feed that contains either spices or vitamin E. Moreover, swine fed with such feed grow an excellent manner.
Although Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 6-14723 discloses a method for obtaining low-fat chicken meat by breeding chickens with a diet which contains spices--garlic, ginger, oregano, and cinnamon--and vitamin E, the above-described improvement of pork quality attained by the present invention cannot be conceived from the teaching of this publication, as chicken meat has an aging period (i.e., the required time after slaughter for the meat to become suitable for consumption) as short as 0.5 days, as distinguished from the case of pork, which requires about 5 days for aging, and therefore, drip is not very problematic in the case of chicken meat.